If you're old enough to have grown up without social media, and you're trying to market your website, you might be feeling a little lost. It's not unusual for older marketers to fear Facebook and Twitter, or not understand the point of it. You'd be ignoring them at your peril, however, and missing out on a great opportunity.

One of the biggest fears of those who don't use social media for promotion is not knowing what to say. Related to this is the fear that you don't have anything to say that anyone would be interested in. As Mike Moran notes about Twitter, “When Twitter first came out, I couldn't imagine why anyone would want to know what I was doing.”

So how do you get past this? Moran did it by finding a way to use Twitter that was similar to the kind of sharing he already did. He'd been sending links to interesting articles to a few friends via email, along with a line or two to let them know why they'd find it interesting. So he started doing that via Twitter instead. He also started sharing some tips that he'd put into his blog posts – mindful of the fact that he had to keep them short due to Twitter's 140-character restriction.

It's what happened next that's interesting. “Some people started to follow me...And they started to talk to me on Twitter. And I started following other people and retweeting...and talking to them,” Moran observed. “It all happened gradually, but I realized that I do know what to say on Twitter.”

Here's another reason not to ignore social media: if someone is going to complain about your company, they're likely to complain about it there. If you're involved with social media, you can address the issue and make things better. I know, nobody likes to see complains about their organization, but addressing a disgruntled customer's problem and handling it well can do a world of good.

You do need to be careful when doing this. Do not get defensive, as that will only make things worse. Moran suggests imagining that the person making the complaint is standing in front of you and saying those words to your face. What would you say back to them? You probably wouldn't walk away, and you wouldn't ignore them; likewise, if you have any training in customer service, you're not going to yell at them or try to imply that it was their fault.

Moran suggests responses such as "I am so sorry that happened to you. I can see why you are upset. I can contact the people in that department for you and see what can be done." Or you might say, "Wow! That doesn't sound good at all. We pride ourselves on happy customers and you are understandably far from that right now. I am obviously not familiar with the details of your situation, but what could we do to make things right?" Either way, the point is to recognize the customer and their experience, acknowledge that it didn't go the way it was supposed to, and find out what can be done to make things right.

Social media, when used correctly, is a great way to raise your company's profile, spread goodwill, and solve problems. If you've been holding back, why not take your first foray into this world today? Good luck!

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